The UCF Knights hung around for around three quarters against the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Saturday, before momentum flipped and they lost. It was the second week in a row that happened to the Knights, having lost to a ranked Houston Cougars team in the exact same way a week before.
In many ways, that's a microcosm for the UCF season. Moments where the Knights flash excellence. If you squint, you can see the vision, but a lack of consistency hits, and they're not making much progress in terms of wins and losses.
UCF now sits at 3-3 on the season and 1-2 in Big 12 play. That's tied for 10th in the conference standings. On top of that, after next week's bye, it's not a particularly forgiving schedule to try to get back to bowl eligibility.
UCF has a few different issues that they need to address this season. However, the biggest thing for Scott Frost has been the injuries. It's hard to become consistent when the lineup is always in flux.
"Yeah, first thing we need to do is get healthy," Frost said . "I don't think it's even just the hurt guys, it's the other guys that we've been leaning on that have been playing more reps. And we've had some physical games."
The good news for UCF is that they're headed into the bye week and should have some extra time. On the other side of that, they're also hosting the BYU Cougars following the bye, who are one of the most physical teams in the Big 12. It'll be all hands on deck.
"I think this bye week comes at a really good time for us to try to get guys back and get everybody else fresh and ready to go. We're really going to put an emphasis on that. I knew we had a tough stretch to begin the season, and we did. Some of those teams are playing even better than I maybe even expected," Frost said.
"But we've got six games left and a whole half of a season left. And I think being fresh and ready for those gives us the best chance."
The most glaring injury that UCF has had this season is to quarterback Alonza Barnett. Scott Frost would directly address his attempt to return from a hamstring injury he suffered on September 12th, now a month ago.
"We'll see," Frost said. "I know he wants to get back as soon as he can."
That's obviously a bit vague, which has to be concerning for UCF moving forward. Still, Frost was able to be a bit more open at other spots.
"Speedy was really close today. We game-planned for Speedy this week, expecting to have him in. Some of the stuff that we ran was for Speedy," Frost said.
"And then going through Thursday and Friday practice, he just wasn't quite ready. We don't want to lose him for the whole year. Man, it'd be good to have Lew back, be good to have Bruno full strength. We'll see on Jacob Maiava, Owen Spell, the guard. We need him back. We're just getting thin in some spots. Man, getting any guys back takes reps off other people, and I think it's going to help us out."
A lot can change in two weeks. Hopefully, for UCF, that means getting several of these key pieces back as quickly as possible.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
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